One of the first (if not the first) aloft and element hotels that are scheduled to open in Spring 2008 are the Starwood owned and managed aloft & element Lexington, MA.  Don’t worry -  its not going to be a one building containing both brands – its going to be two separate buildings, two separate identities just on one parcel of land – land which used to home of the Sheraton Lexington – a longtime Starwood owned hotel in a building that was originally built in 1954 and had long outlasted its useful life.

If you are not familiar with Lexington, it is about 20 miles away from Boston, and the hotel site will be located right in at a highway interchange. In addition, the hotel borders Minute Man National Park – where some of the opening revolutionary war battles were fought.

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A few months ago I did some research into the Lexington aloft/element and I came across a PDF document from the Lexington Town Meeting Associations website. This document was prepared by Starwood to get approval for the development, is dated March 2006, and refers to element as “project esw”, which if you recall was the temporary name of the brand until they decided on “element”.

While this document doesn’t give any confidential information away it does give a little insight into the development process and also some expectations of RevPAR & ADR (looks like Starwood kept their word – both properties have ADR’s (Average Daily Rate) of around $150!), the document also has some great images of the site plan (where the hotel buildings will be placed on the property) as well as exterior elevations (pictures of the outside of the hotels), though I have to admit, as much as I love the aloft & element hotel concept – these pictures portray both hotels as very boxy looking.

On page 5 of the PDF is a picture of the aloft building – very conspicuously missing the standard aloft rooftop signature element, and also, instead of the bright gray exterior, Starwood is using what seems to be a faux wood (or brick) look (its very difficult to make it out exactly) changes that were mad due to feedback from the town, and taking into consideration the areas historic significance.

If you click on the map above, you will be able to zoom out and take a look at the area surrounding the hotel I wonder if this location can really sustain two new hotels, so I have to agree with HotelChatter’s comment:

According to an in-house expert on the area, the biggest reason you would ever visit Lexington is to appease your inner-Revolutionary War Buff as Lexington and neighboring Concord were the sites first engagement of the American Revolution.

But according to the PDF document,

[The development] Addresses Lexington’s need for new hotels in the appropriate location for hotel use.

And within the PDF’s Summary of Operations, the aloft is expected to achieve 70% occupancy in 2008, and the element is expected to achieve 75% occupancy that same year.. looks like someone at Starwood did their homework – why else would they spend so much money on this development?

I think I’ll be taking a trip up to Lexington in Spring/Summer 2008 – in fact, it might be a two night trip, one night in aloft, second night in element.

andrew@alconic-inc.com